Looking cool usually took the backseat to saving people. Some superheroes were better at multitasking both at the same time, but as much as Gawain enjoyed the coolness factor of being an X-man, sticking landings had never really been very high on his priority list. Not when falling out of shattering mirrors, anyway. As long as it got the job done, he was okay with bruises.

>>”Oh I landed it. But my ankle didn’t think it was as cool as it was.”

Gawain clicked his tongue, glancing at her ankle. That must have hurt...

>>"I am durable...but it depends. For some reason my strength, resilience, it depends on the city around me. The building we were in was falling apart, hence, when I jumped out, my powers were weak. But, I should be okay now.”

Gawain blinked. That was... quite the new take on super strength. So, she had been falling apart along with the building? Ouch.

>>”Roxanne. Though most just call me ‘Roxie’.”

"Nice to meet you, Roxie. Thanks for the help" Gawain grinned as she squeezed his hand. He already knew he never wanted to be on her wrong side. "So, are you on any... uh, official team, or did you just happen to be walking by?"

Roxie met a lot of people in life but she rarely met anyone in these circumstances. She had met mutants before but they were usually drunken louts who didn’t know that they couldn’t hold their liquor. Yeah, clubs and bars didn’t provide her with the best examples of people to introduce herself to, unless the introduction had to do with her fist meeting their cheek.

Thankfully this wasn’t one of those situations. Instead she had run across an actual hero when she was simply trying to lend a hand. Gawain, as he introduced himself, turned out to be a rather nice guy. He was brave, selfless, and to be quite honest he wasn’t hard on the eyes. His words, however, carried with them the sheer tone of someone who lived their lives for this kind of thing. Unlike Roxie, who acted in situations that she came across, Gawain was a hero by choice -- and a well known one at that.

While most would have been somewhat starstruck, Roxie wasn’t It wasn’t her style to be. Instead she just took his hand and shook it, rather firmly, a reminder that she wasn’t some starry-eyed fangirl, or a damsel in distress. Despite that last bit, she held her own in that towering inferno, to the point that she got people out on her own and with only a few minor injuries. For her, that was pretty good.

>>"Nice to meet you, Roxie. Thanks for the help...So, are you on any... uh, official team, or did you just happen to be walking by?"

She nodded, loosening her grip on Gawain’s hand, retracting it and sighing as she planted her palms into the floor and leaned back. At his thanks Roxie nodded her head; again, she was only too happy to help when the situation asked it of her. Another roll of her neck and Roxie set her eyes forward, staring at the crumbling building. When Gawain spoke up again, he seemed to be dancing around a question before he finally managed to spit it out -- and it made her laugh.

Smirking, she turned her gaze towards him, eyebrows lifted in amusement. ”Just walking by,” she admitted with a grin. ”Trust me, I don’t belong to some lame group like the Revengers or the Custodians of the Cosmos.” Chuckling she tossed her hair over her shoulder. ”I see a problem and, if I can do something about it, I do. Just who I am, I guess.”

You met all kinds of mutants in New York City - some powerful and some simply weird, some heroic and some that just wanted to be left alone, really. Mirror, eternally fascinated by mutations, tended to keep an eye on the ones that were particularly powerful. Meeting someone who panic-transformed into a kiwi was fun, but... someone with full-blown super strength? A whole other playing field.

>>”Just walking by. Trust me, I don’t belong to some lame group like the Revengers or the Custodians of the Cosmos.”

"Whew." Gawain grinned in mock relief. The real relief was that she did not add the X-men to the list. Then again, with the big freaking blue X on his chest, maybe she was being polite.
...
She was probably not being polite.

>>”I see a problem and, if I can do something about it, I do. Just who I am, I guess.”

"It is a good thing to be." the mirrorwalker nodded, carefully popping his shoulders as the adrenaline ebbed away and left behind a lot of bruises. "Woman with super strength, protecting a city on her own. I knew you liked the classics." he added with a grin. He liked something about Roxie. Maybe she was a kindred spirit.

"So, how does it work?" he asked glancing at the building "Is your power constantly fluctuating?"

>>"Whew."

Roxie smirked. She didn’t know why Gawain was relieved. Maybe he thought she was part of some superpowered militia or mercenary group. The idea sounded ridiculous, to be honest, but she wasn’t at all surprised by it either. Working in a bar meant that she was privy to a lot of stories, and a number of them concerned mutants who were hunted down by labs or ex-soldiers who had to hide their abilities if they wanted to avoid the wrong attention. Most of the time it sounded more like paranoia than anything else, but in the back of her mind, she often wondered if there was some validity to it.

Gawain was curious about her, it seemed. No she didn’t belong to any special forces group roaming the city unchecked, but she was a concerned citizen. She came clean about her abilities and her want to help people. She was just a bystander, knew the building was in trouble, and ran in to help where she could. She knew it was like to be visited by tragedy. Losing both of her parents, one to disease and the other to a reckless driver. While she couldn’t heal the sick, she would make for damn sure that if there was something useful she could do with these powers, then she would do it.

That was essentially what she told him. People were in trouble and she volunteered herself to help without being asked.

>>"It is a good thing to be...Woman with super strength, protecting a city on her own. I knew you liked the classics."

She rolled her eyes but still managed a small grin. ”You try feeding that ‘With great power…” B.S. and I’ll throw you right back into that building.” She wasn’t a hero, didn’t like the attention that a word like that drew, but she was grateful to be of assistance whenever she can be.

>>"So, how does it work? Is your power constantly fluctuating?"

She nodded. There was really no need to hide any more info about her abilities -- unless she was talking to her future nemesis. But the emblazoned X on his chest was enough to hopefully show the type of person he was. And she didn’t sense an enemy in him. So why not?

”Yeah,” she confirmed. ”Haven’t really tested them to their full extent, but my abilities have a fluctuating range of about a block, maybe less. The structures around me affect how strong and durable I am. Seems good for the city, but so with many less than ideal areas around, my powers can by jumpy.” She snorted. ”Plus, a trip out to the countryside is pretty much impossible for me to enjoy.” Every power did have it’s downside, after all, but she didn’t elaborate too much. Rather she turned the question onto him. ”You? Teleporting through glass, I take it?”

Gawain was curious about Roxie's powers for a number of reasons. One, she really was a classic, but apparently a classic with a twist, and that was worth talking about. Even in New York, not many people ran around with raw physical super strength. It had been kind of amazing to see it in action, even if he missed a bunch of the action because they were too busy saving people. And that was the other thing: She stopped by to run into a burning building and help people, even though she knew the building's collapse would diminish hr powers. And those kind of people were worth knowing. Or even inviting to the Mansion...

>>”Yeah. Haven’t really tested them to their full extent, but my abilities have a fluctuating range of about a block, maybe less. The structures around me affect how strong and durable I am. Seems good for the city, but so with many less than ideal areas around, my powers can by jumpy. Plus, a trip out to the countryside is pretty much impossible for me to enjoy.”

"Sooo... you're the hero this city deserves?" Gawain grinned; the Flying Fox reference was too much to pass up. "That's pretty cool, though. Never heard of a specifically urban mutation before..."

>>”You? Teleporting through glass, I take it?”

"Reflecting surfaces" Gawain nodded "I like to call it mirrorwalking. I can also walk into movies... but that gets super trippy. Especially if they are animated." he shuddered a little, remembering that one time in Sleeping Beauty.

Roxie continued to roll her ankle. God it was sore. It would heal, she knew that much, but it was going to be a journey getting there. But it wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to pain. Despite her abilities, Roxie knew pain and she knew how to handle it. She would handle this just fine. It was just going to be a long trip limping home, is all. With a sigh she sat back, watching the fire fighters as they fought to contain the flames in the building. Really and truly she hoped that they got everyone out.

Her gaze swept to Gawain as she started to explain her abilities. They were...complicated for the most part. Super strength, stamina, durability, those really were the classics of superheroes but to be restrained like she was? She honestly didn’t know what to think about it. Who has their abilities based on the city around them? It just didn’t make any sense, but she knew that was her cross to bear.

>>"Sooo... you're the hero this city deserves?That's pretty cool, though. Never heard of a specifically urban mutation before..."

She sighed and rolled her eyes at that comment. ”God you’re lame,” she said with a smile and a small shake of her head. As he spoke further she nodded in agreement. ”You and me both. I mean, it could be worse. My abilities could be emotion based, I guess?”

A shrug of her shoulders followed. She couldn’t imagine having abilities based around her emotions. She anyone would be able to make that work for them, no offense. Mirror, however, didn’t seem to have powers like that. Rather it seemed that his abilities were based around moving through glass. Also rather interesting.

>>"Reflecting surfaces...I like to call it mirrorwalking. I can also walk into movies... but that gets super trippy. Especially if they are animated."

She arched her brow, staring at him. She had seen his abilities in action so she knew that he wasn’t lying about his powers, but there was something that caused her pause. ”Movies?” she asked curiously, mouth open in a mixture of confusion and pondering. What did “movies” have to do with walking through mirrors? In her experience, most abilities were related and that didn’t sound related at all. But, besides that, there was something that bothered her... ”Please don’t tell me you use that for porn…”

Okay, the Flying Fox reference might have been a bit too much, but really, if her powers were that attached to the city, it was not as far fetched as it seemed. Come on.

>>”God you’re lame,”

"I'm not the one with the broken ankle" Gawain pointed out, touching his own ribs gingerly to check if they may have been broken.

>>”I mean, it could be worse. My abilities could be emotion based, I guess?”

"Yeah." those were always tricky, the powers that fluctuated with one's emotions. It was a lot harder to get them under control. Gawain was very, very grateful that his shifting worked like clockwork. The movie walking, on the other hand... needed some getting used to.

>>”Movies?... Please don’t tell me you use that for porn…”

"Whoa!" Gawain stared at her with an expression of shock "Ew! Why the hell would someone actually want to walk into that?..." he blinked. Okay, so maybe there was an answer to that... but only obvious to people who did not really consider what a real life version of a movie like that would be. "Besides, once I'm in a movie, I gotta stay the entire time. Unless I die. And I'd rather not come up with ways to kill myself in a porno. That's just... why did you even have to go there?..."

She sneered when Mirror mention her ankle. Idly she continued to turn it slowly, trying to work out the soreness. It was going to take more than that, however, and she was more than certain that the paramedic was going to try and force an ace bandage around it. But she didn’t care. She would wear it, if only for him to leave her alone, but it wasn’t the first ankle she twisted and it wouldn’t be the last. Besides, there were more important matters to think about -- such as Gawain and his unconventional forays into tinseltown.

Really it was the first thing that popped into her mind and she probably wasn’t the first to ask, let alone, think that. That was why, when the hero looked so aghast at the possibility, that Roxie couldn’t help but laugh.

>>"Whoa! Ew! Why the hell would someone actually want to walk into that?..."

She arched her brow and eyed him. Did he really need to ask? After a second Mirror seemed to concede that there was validity in asking but he was still clearly offended that such a thing could be considered for him.

>> "Besides, once I'm in a movie, I gotta stay the entire time. Unless I die. And I'd rather not come up with ways to kill myself in a porno. That's just... why did you even have to go there?..."

Snickering again, Roxie shook her head. ”Listen sweetie, I’m just saying what I’m sure most people are thinking when you tell them you ‘walk into movies’.” She gave an innocent shrug of her shoulders. ”Don’t blame me for speaking truth. Besides, it would have been weirder if you had said you were actually into that. So you get points for that, Handsome.”

Another smirk and she sighed. Seemed that the fire department was getting a handle on the burning building finally. So far it seemed like everyone was accounted for. Even pets. That was a win in her book. With a sigh she glanced to him again.

”Hey...you wanna get a drink? It’s the least you owe me for saving your butt.” It was a tease, of course, nothing more. ”I bartend at a bar near here. Promise it’s adequate stuff.”

Walking into movies in one way was awesome, and in another not at all what it was cranked up to be. Roxie had not asked anything other than the obvious, he had to give her that, but still, seriously, what kind of a person did you have to be to use such an awesome superpower for something so... wrong?

>>”Listen sweetie, I’m just saying what I’m sure most people are thinking when you tell them you ‘walk into movies’. Don’t blame me for speaking truth. Besides, it would have been weirder if you had said you were actually into that. So you get points for that, Handsome.”

"Thanks?" Gawain smirked at the compliment. At least she was not trying to convince him otherwise. That would have been awkward. And as crude as the woman was, they did save people together, so she was okay in his book, for now.

>>”Hey...you wanna get a drink? It’s the least you owe me for saving your butt.”

"Oh, is that how it is" Gawain arched an eyebrow at her. One could not really argue with super strength, even if the whole thing had been a team effort. A drink sounded nice, though.

>>"I bartend at a bar near here. Promise it’s adequate stuff.”

"Yeah sure let's go" Gawain got to his feet a little too fast, wincing as his bruises protested at the movement. Yeah, a drink really sounded nice. "So, that's what you do when you are not running into burning buildings? Help people get drunk?"

>>"Oh, is that how it is"

Roxie just smirked in reply. She liked teasing this guy. He was good for that. The pair of them had gone up against some rather impossible circumstances and they both came out of it with only the slightest bit injuries. So long as everyone was safe, then she could call it a good day. And, for her, every good day needed to be celebrated with some good drink. Now that the last of the people were being cared for, Roxie knew that she was just taking up the services of these fine people. But for Gawain, well, she supposed she could share in her successes.

So why not invite him for a drink. The bar she tended at wasn’t too far from here and they could drink their wounds away. Roxie wasn’t the kind to not take advantage of a handsome or beautiful person’s company. Maybe she was a little older than Gawain but, so what? Didn’t mean she couldn’t offer.

>>"Yeah sure let's go...So, that's what you do when you are not running into burning buildings? Help people get drunk?"

Watching Mirror agree and hop to his feet, Roxie didn’t miss the slight wince he gave when he straightened up. She couldn’t judge him, though, because as she started to stand, she winced too from her ankle. It was just a sprain and would be well soon enough. She moved through the pain, any sign of it buried under her slight grimace with every five steps. She’d suffered worse.

At Mirror’s comment, Roxie continued to lead the way to the bar and shrugged her shoulders. ”When I’m not kicking them out of nightclubs for being too rowdy,” she said, smiling over her shoulder. ”I’m a woman of many hats.”

***

The Stagger Inn. Bad pun aside, the bar was actually somewhat adequate. It wasn’t the classiest place in town but it wasn’t a complete dive either. Sure they had their few overly zealous drunks and bruhs trying to get hammered and fight anything that moved, but most of their patronage were from loyal customers who never moved from the area and saw the bar change owners and names several times over the years. Even though all that they always claimed the same seats at the counter.

Roxie strolled in with a nod to the owner who was busy doing rounds. With a slight nod to the pretty blond behind the counter, Roxie sighed as she moved behind the bar and motioned to a spot for Mirror to sit. ”Take a seat,” she said. With a sigh she started to pull up a couple of glasses and turned her back to the hero, looking over the selection. ”What’s your poison?”

The bar wasn't that far away, which was great, because Roxie was limping, and Mirror really needed a drink. They walked in, with not many other patrons around, and Gawain took a seat at the bar, while Roxie walked behind it to get some drinks. She really moved like she owned the place. Then again, who was going to stop her?

>>”What’s your poison?”

"Whiskey" Gawain named the first drink he could think of; he used to steal Sam's drinks, so his taste was kind of skewed that way. And after the burning building, he deserved something stronger. He leaned on the counter, watching Roxie work.

"So, is this the part where I give you the spiel about joining the X-men and using your powers for the greater good?"

Roxie was a good worker. Plus she was able to handle most of the ramble that tended to happen in this establishment. Because of that she was often given free-range behind the bar, no matter if she were on the clock or not. Right now it certainly wasn’t her shift but the owner wasn’t going to say anything to her. She didn’t often drink her weight in liquor so a few glasses here and there were absolutely fine. And a couple of glasses were exactly what Roxie was handing out at the moment.

>>"Whiskey"

She nodded, plucking up a couple of highball glasses. Gawain didn’t say if he wanted ice or not but considering what they had gone through, surrounded by fire, something a little cool was certainly called for. Ice clinked within the glasses, soon followed by whiskey that she expertly poured. As she started to pour into her own glass, she lifted her head to Mirror as he leaned over to speak to her.

>>"So, is this the part where I give you the spiel about joining the X-men and using your powers for the greater good?"

She smirked, turning her gaze back down to the glasses on the counter. Sighing she replaced the bottle on the rack. ”What? Afraid if you don’t snag me now some evil organization is going to snatch me up and you and your X’s will have to deal with the Goddess-of-Cities?”

Both glasses in hand, she limped over to mirror, setting a glass down in front of him and pulling a stool over to slip onto and get off her foot. She lightly turned her ankle, wincing at the soreness but responding by taking a sip. The weight of what she had done was beginning to settle in and her muscles were beginning to lose the adrenaline that had poured into them earlier. Now she was beginning to feel a little spent. But not enough where she couldn’t engage in Mirror’s lofty ideas.

”Listen, I respect what you and you X’s do,” she said, giving a little shrug. ”But, I dunno. I still don’t know a lot on how my powers work and…” she sneered a little bit in dissatisfaction. ”I’m not the biggest team player…”

It was going to come up, sooner or later. It was not about powers, either; not everyone who was a mutant was fit for X-men work, and even obviously useful powers did not automatically qualify someone for interest. But after all his years on the team, Mirror developed a sense of something else. And the fact that he had run into her while pulling people out of a collapsing building was definitely a sign. Of something.

>>”What? Afraid if you don’t snag me now some evil organization is going to snatch me up and you and your X’s will have to deal with the Goddess-of-Cities?”

"What, 'Lady Metropolis' is already taken?" Gawain smirked, shifting as she took a seat next to him. She poured drinks, and they both settled down to relax after some work well done.

>>”Listen, I respect what you and you X’s do. But, I dunno. I still don’t know a lot on how my powers work and… I’m not the biggest team player…”

Gawain smirked and clinked his glass to hers before he drank.

"The firs time I ever visited the Mansion, I snuck in to hit on a girl." he confessed after a sip "It's not like everyone starts out perfectly fit for vigilante work..."

>>"What, 'Lady Metropolis' is already taken?"

Roxie snickered and nodded in an impressed manner. ”That’s not bad...if a little 1950’s superhero sexist,” she smirked. ”What’s wrong with Captain Metropolis?”

She was teasing of course and was in no way serious. She couldn’t imagine herself running around in tights and answering to some ridiculous codename. Comic books were never her thing and the current moveis she could hardly take serious. Gawain and his teammates deserved her respect, sure, but there was a difference between giving respect and donning the costume herself. It just wouldn’t happen.

So said she as much. She never had been much of a team player, not when she spent the majority of her time on her own. It was a hard lesson to learn but Roxie was firmly of the mindset that there was no one left on this planet to trust but herself.

>>"The firs time I ever visited the Mansion, I snuck in to hit on a girl...It's not like everyone starts out perfectly fit for vigilante work..."

That was probably the least surprising thing that he could have told her. Gawain seemed like the type who would do whatever it took to hit on a someone. But in his case it would turn out that his lack of boundaries led to a career of heroing. Interesting. Shaking her head, she took a sip of her drink as she continued to roll her ankle a bit more to encourage more blood flow to the strained muscles and keep them from stiffening.

”How did it work out?” she asked, taking another sip. If Mirror was going to talk, she was going to make him talk. ”You manage to get on with this girl?”

With all of her rough edges, it was hard to imagine Roxie as a villain. She had her heart in the right place, even if she sore like a sailor while doing the right thing. Gawain had to admit that he was starting to like her, in a friendly banter way. She would have been good to have on the team. Better than becoming Lady Metropolis, anyway.

>>”That’s not bad...if a little 1950’s superhero sexist. What’s wrong with Captain Metropolis?”

"Captains are not villains. Doctor Metropolis, then." he grinned. The whiskey was good.

The conversation moved on, and Gawain offered a piece of his own part to make a point. Roxie did not quite hear the same point, though.

>>”How did it work out? You manage to get on with this girl?”

Gawain blinked. He didn't really expect the story to go that far. For a moment, the memory of Twyla blindsided him. Then he shook his head. "Yeah, I did, for a while. She got me to stay and everything, and then S... Cold Steel decided to train me. Well. Punch me, and then train me..." he chuckled.